Giving Feedback

“To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.”

Anthony Robbins

Most of us interact daily with others in personal or professional settings and often both. The interaction is always subject to the limitation of the medium used for communication such as words, phone, emails, etc. This leads to the possibility of miscommunication as we may not be able to fully express ourselves. On top of this, all humans are susceptible to making mistakes, an inevitable and necessary part of growth.

Hence, the risk of miscommunication together with the possibility of making mistakes leads to a need to provide feedback to others. In addition, feedbacks are very effective in reinforcing certain positive behaviours so people are aware that they are on the right track.

We have all received feedbacks in different forms from our parents when growing up. However, most of us do not have as much experience in giving feedback. Different types of feedbacks are suitable for different people in our lives. In this course delegates learn various techniques on providing different styles of feedbacks. They also practice delivering praise and explore the extensive benefits of this approach in guiding people in a specific direction.

This course focuses on important areas on giving and receiving effective and constructive feedback. It contains numerous examples on good and bad feedback so delegates can understand why a statement works and another does not.

Techniques are provided for various relationships such as giving feedback to colleagues, subordinates or managers. A powerful technique is also presented which helps delegates to disarm an aggressive criticiser who is intimidating or not as emotionally skilled as they should be.

The course contains many exercises that allow delegates to practice giving feedback to each other under a controlled environment and also analyse a number of feedback-giving scenarios.

In this highly practical course delegates will learn:

What is Feedback

• What is the nature of feedback?
• What do you want to achieve by providing feedback?
• How do we communicate?
• How does miscommunication take place and what can we do to prevent it?

Self-Criticism

• Why you should not blame others for everything that goes wrong in your life?
• What are the benefits of self-criticism?
• How does self-criticism relate to giving feedback?

How to Give Feedback

• What strategies work best to provide an effective feedback?
• What is a constructive feedback as opposed to a negative feedback?
• What is the best way to formulate your feedback in order to get the best results?
• What kind of feedback works and what kind does not?
• How to use effective body language when giving feedback to show honesty and increase the likelihood of growth for the other person

Power of Appreciation

• How to take advantage of the power of giving gratitude
• How appreciating others’ efforts can significantly increase their productivity
• Why don’t we praise as much as we should?

How to Praise

• How to praise others to reinforce specific behaviours
• What are the critical steps when delivering praise?

How to Criticise Senior People

• What techniques can you use to deliver feedback to senior people or your managers?
• What strategies should you use to deliver a key message while preserving and strengthening your relationship?
• How to formulate your feedback statement
• What is the best opening or closing statements to use?

How to Receive Feedback

• How people receive feedback
• How does knowing how to receive feedback help you to provide feedback?
• How should you deal with aggressively critical people?
• How to disarm an aggressive criticiser using a simple yet powerful technique
• What body language posture and gestures are most suitable when receiving feedback?

Audience: Anyone

Prerequisites: None

Course Duration: 1 Day.

Course Level: Beginners & Intermediate

By the end of this course the delegates will be able to:

• Understand the nature and purpose of giving feedback and how miscommunication takes place
• Know when you should give feedback to others and when to reflect and take responsibility yourself
• Deliver constructive feedback with a potential negative message and expect to get a good response with commitment to change
• Take advantage of the incredible power of giving praise to others using established guidelines on showing gratitude
• Use a step-by-step technique to praise and reinforce specific behaviours of others
• Criticise a person in a senior position without jeopardising your own position
• Receive feedback in a way to encourage the other person to give as much information as possible while being able to handle aggressive criticism

Giving feedback to others is a highly interactive skill. There is a lot involved; what to say, how to start, when to do it, how to extend it, how to end it, what body language works best and so on. Courses on this subject sometimes primarily focus on guidelines and strategies which although useful, it can be very difficult to remember in the heat of the action when providing feedback to someone else.

Our approach at Skills Converged is to teach by example and use exercises. Examples, case studies and specific conversations help delegates to clearly understand how to implement a series of specific guidelines. Participation in group exercises enables delegates to put what they have learned into practice and see the results immediately.

Comprehensive instructions are provided for the tutor to guide and correct delegates as necessary and help to initiate discussion around these exercises to further expand on key learning points.

This approach together with accelerated learning principles helps us to design an outstanding course on this subject which organisations can use to improve their staff productivity, help management to give constructive feedback to their staff and encourage the use of praise and appreciation to boost morale and self-esteem.